The cryptocurrency touched a peak of almost $20,000 in December - and indeed crossed over that threshold on some exchanges - but has since been rocked by several large sell-offs.

Despite this huge fall in the value of the digital currency in the past week, Daniel Duarte Figueiredo, co-founder at blockchain firm Auctus, remains determinedly optimistic.

"I believe that Bitcoin price will recover to its highest values and might even break some new records later this year [because] it has been gaining more and more attention in mainstream communication channels and attracting the interest of new investors worldwide," he argued.

"Cryptocurrencies in general, including Bitcoin, still have a lot to grow in 2018. Maybe not as much as they did in 2017 in relative terms, but I think that the percentage of people that know about cryptocurrencies and use them is still very low and will increase this year."

However, other crypto-currencies including Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash have also experienced steep falls over the past twenty-four hours.

Furthermore, there has been concern among some experts that a bubble had been forming in the market as casual investors piled into an asset they did not fully understand